Hello there, my father has colon cancer. I'm his daughter I would like to be tasted . Could you tell me where I need to go and what I need to do please.
I'm sorry your father has bowel cancer and you ask about getting tested.
GP's can issue NHS bowel screening kits to people with symptoms, outside of the normal NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. So do speak to your GP about this.
Genetic testing is usually offered to people with a strong family history of cancer, as this predicts who is most likely to have inherited a cancer gene fault. If there is a strong family history of cancer, for example you have two close relatives ( parent,child,or sibling) on the same side of your family with the same type of cancer, or the cancer developed at a young age, then there may be a concern about the possibility of an inherited cancer gene fault. In this situation some families are referred to genetic clinics by their GP for further assessment.
The charity Bowel Cancer UK also has some information about family history and bowel cancer here. As you will see bowel cancer can be increased with a family history, but this might not be by enough to warrant genetic testing or additional screening. This is something that your GP can advise you about so do discuss it with them when you have the chance.
There are lifestyle factors that we can all follow to help reduce our risk of developing cancer which you can read about at this link.
I hope this is of use. Please do get back to us if you have any more questions or give us a call us on 0808 800 4040. We are here from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
